Family Friendly Dungeons & Dragons Adventures & Modules
I understand how difficult it is to wade through the official Dungeons & Dragons published adventures looking for kid appropriate content. For the most part, I either use the maps and throw out the adventure text entirely or substantially rewrite their content when playing with my kids.
Once you have read and played through a few D&D modules, I recommend you start home-brewing your own campaigns. Below are links to some more kid friendly content to get your started.
How to Tame A Dragon: Session 2
After a fierce dragon attack on the Town of Derrikian, the players find themselves embarking on a perilous journey in search of an injured dragon
How to Tame A Dragon: Session 1
Introduction to the Isle of Derrik and the Town of Derrikian: The Isle of Derrik is a rugged, windswept island situated in the far north,
How to Tame A Dragon: An Isle of Derrik Adventure
Let’s see if we can use the movie How to Train Your Dragon to create a D&D campaign. We are going to use this as
Spelljammer Adventure: Egg of Argnot
The players receive a distress signal from a powerful spacefaring civilization, the Orlaxians, who have been attacked and are on the brink of destruction. The
Rose Red and The Seven Dwarves
This adventure is designed for 1 to 5 characters of 1st to 10th level. It is a “find and escort home” adventure with heavy role
Holliday Adventure
A Christmas Themed, Family-Friendly D&D Adventure This adventure is intended for up to 1 to 5 characters of 1st to 15th level. This adventure relies
Thanksgiving Adventure
It’s a Turky Hunt! Kind of… The fall harvest festival is in full swing. Unfortunately, the annual Cockitrice migration has shifted from its normal course
Halloween D&D Adventure
The Hook: Word has reached you from a nearby village that the new owner of the keep is a vampire and the castle grounds are
Labor Day Adventure: Gold Digger
This Labor Day themed adventure is for the older kids… The Hook: Stopping at the Frogsmead Inn & Tavern for some well-earned rest, you find
Gary Gygax Day!
Ahhh… the annual celebration of the inventor of Dungeons & Dragons. Okay, one of the two creators. To celebrate this day DMingDad is putting out
What? No Father’s Day Adventure?
It’s Fathers Day and I am taking the day off, but fear not the family got together and came up with some adventure inspiration for you!
Apprentice Exchange
A Family-Friendly D&D Adventure for 1 to 5 Players This adventure is intended for up to 5 characters of 1st to 4th level. This adventure
Yo’ Momma Wears Combat Boots
Don’t bother unpacking. Caleb is missing. A couple of boys came to tell me he chased a goblin into the woods. They have a two-hour headstart on us.
Phoenix Rising
The elven council has decreed that the Mount Mono volcano is a protected phoenix nesting ground, but they need the player characters’ help.
Princess in a Tower
Search the wiods for the witches’ tower where the princess and heir to the throw of our neighboring kingdom has been imprisoned since she was a young girl. It’s said that the tower is guarded by an evil dragon.
Flight of the Kipir (Kipine)
Flight of the Kipir (Kipine) A Family-friendly Halloween Themed Adventure This is a Halloween themed family-friendly adventure for D&D 5e. This adventure relies on role
A Single Feather
A Single Feather A family-friendly adventure for characters 1st to 4th levels This adventure is intended for up to 4 characters of 1st to 4th
Beauty and The Beast
Beauty and The Beast A family-friendly adventure for characters 1st to 4th levels This adventure is intended for up to 4 characters of 1st to
Skeleton Dance
Skeleton Dance A family-friendly adventure for characters 1st to 4th levels This adventure is intended for up to 4 characters of 1st to 4th level.
Dryad Needs a Home
The dryad’s daughter will turn 12-years-old on the next full moon. If the young girl does not find an oak tree she can bind to, she will die.
PseudoDragon Roundup
PseudoDragon Roundup This adventure is intended for up to 4 characters of 1st to 4th level. This adventure relies heavily on exploration and role-playing with
D&D Easter Adventure
First thing this morning, excited farmers arrived at the inn with tales of egg-stealing bunnycorns seen leaving their chicken coups.
Troll Bridge
The mayor of the small village is offering a reward to anyone that can remove the trolls from under the bridge on the road to Makersburg.
Manny Gets a Pet
Manny, the manticore guardian of the castle, has requested the player characters retrieve a valuable and rare giant rabbit and two giant rats from Bolger, the halfling.
Family Friendly D&D Content from Other Sites
DnD Adventures for Kids (Updated Link) – These adventures are meant to be run by adults for kids, although teenage Dungeon Masters should be able to run these adventures too.
Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod – rated for kids 6+ with a play time of about 30 minutes. The Heroes of Hesiod requires no previous knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons, and all you need to play is included in this adventure, aside from a few dice, pencils, and some friends to play it with.
Monster Slayers: The Champions of the Elements – rated for kids 6+ with a play time of about 30 minutes. The Champions of the Elements requires no previous knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons, and all you need to play is included in this adventure, aside from a few dice, pencils, and some friends to play it with.
Airquarium – rated for kids 6+. Creatures need not be aggressive. They could be a noncombat wildlife encounter in a setting where they may be a viable choice. However, unlike deer, seagulls, or other wildlife, it’s very likely this “known becoming unknown” will end up with at least one character wanting to get closer, feed, tame, catch, or otherwise interact with these creatures.
Tales from the Yawning Portal contains the module The Sunless Citadel, among others. I would recommend this for kids 10+ as there is quite a bit of battle against goblins and kobolds. Much of the combat can be avoided by roll-play. Minor edits and omissions can make this a very fun adventure for kids. Ditch the skeletons and rats for young players and ignore the key that opens the door to the tomb of the oger.
For our first run through this module, I made it a rescue mission for the halfling being held captive by the Kobolds. The players were able to secure his release by returning the dragon, which was stolen by the goblins. The goblins wanted dungeon’s entrance to be neutral territory, so they could come and go to their lair.
At the end of the game, the rescued halfling told the characters about two other characters in his party that may be trapped in the lower levels of the dungeon.
21 Responses
I just came across this page and these resources seem excellent. Thank you so much for collecting and posting them!
You are very welcome. Glad you found them helpful.
What do you think of the Starter Kit? Is it a good way to get started with my kids – I also haven’t played in 30 years 🙂
Before you spend the money on the starter kit, download the digital copy of the rules rules. If you and your kids enjoy playing, then you can decide if you want to upgrade to the starter or full version (hardback books). If you have a good printer, there are very few reasons to buy the starter kit. It does give you some starter characters and some miscellaneous materials like a set of dice. Personally, I would go directly from the digital rules to a Players Handbook, if you think you are going to play regularly. My kids played using my Players Handbook for almost 2 years before we got them their own copies. My youngest (10) just got a DMG and is learning how to use it to build adventures.
Yoni! Same here! Jumping back in to D&D with my (literally) old gaming group using Zoom and Roll 20. I have DM’d several one-shots with my kids (ages 9 &11) and they cannot get enough of the miniatures / props / item and spell cards I make for them.
I think one of the main things for kids is to have some kind of tangible trinket or something they can show off in their room or show and tell their friends. Honestly, in the early adventures, they just rolled the dice for a half hour!
What would be an appropriate amount of time to run an adventure per session? I and my daughter are trying to wean my almost 10 year old grandson away from video game addiction and he seems to like fantasy games – however, he basically only knows “World of Warcraft”.
He has ADHD, and really almost everything cannot keep his attention except video games and spending time with someone. The longest I can keep him focused is around 45 minutes at a time and I’m hoping getting him into RPGs will help him focus.
The other issue is that I drive a truck and only get one weekend a month at home. Fortunately he only lives five doors down from me.
What would be your advice?
Brian,
Wow, I am so sorry it took this long to see this comment.
I feel your pain here. My kids were much more interested in video games than D&D at first too. And the attention span was similar. Now I catch them on the phone with friends trying to squeeze in a tela-game between school and dinner.
Baby steps. Try an in-the-car game to start. Something about 10 to 15 minutes. Make it easy…no character sheets. More of a choose your own adventure style play. Leave off with a cliffhanger. Do this a couple of times to generate interest. Once you have him hooked on the in-the-car version, ask him if he wants to try a little harder version of the game. Give him a kids version of the character sheet and try to go for about 30 to 45 minutes on the first session. A two or three-room dungeon exploration should do it.
If you can keep him engaged for 45 minutes, cliffhanger him again. Then try to push the next session to an hour. Gradually build up. I find that no game goes over 1 hour without breaks, so offer a snack break every 30 to 60 minutes.
The key is to build up slowly. He will be building a new muscle and it needs time to grow.
Hope this helps and sorry again for taking so long to get back to you.
DMing Dad
Try going to tentacle.net and go to the tales from the yawning portal adventure and play the “White Plue Mountain” adventure. I tried it for my 9 year old sister (I’m 13), and it really works for kids of that age group. Her friends loved it, but she has played it solo as well. Just a few things to round out, that’s all.
Hi! My son (age 9) discovered DnD from some older kids on his bus – much to my delight having played for most of my teenage years. He wanted to learn about it but is also video-game obsessed. Here are the things that worked:
1. We already had strict rules on when video games were and were not allowed but DnD could be played any time – eg we would play an hour before school.
2. While we were both learning, it was just the two of us (this gets into someone else’s question on solo play). He played two characters and I played an NPC who joined him and we did Lost Mine of Phandelver. It was a huge success – he wanted to play every day.
3. A battle map – the 1” grid that you use with dry-erase markers that sell for about $15 is key. I just used Lego figures and paper cut-outs as my “miniatures”. Kids like mine are really into the battles and the game mechanics. They want to see the actors moving in the stage. The idea of simply working off of imagination and abstract descriptions of rooms is a lot to ask.
4. Once we were comfortable with the rules and could play smoothly we invited some of his more math and reading inclined friends to join us for a new campaign. I’ve found they can go for maybe 45 minutes before I send them outside for 15minutes to play soccer or jump on the trampoline for 15minutes then I ask them if they’re ready to come back to the table with a game hook; “don’t forget Gundren Rockseeker is still out there somewhere and he needs your help!” – total game time maxes out at about 3 hours – with pizza it makes for a good after school Friday thing and all of the kids are getting into it now. It’s funny I now have other parents outside of the original group asking if their kids can join.
Do you know of any campaigns for just one kid?
Adam,
Solo adventures are few and far between. Solo kid’s adventures are the preverbal unicorn. All of the adventures I post can be scaled down for a single player, but I understand it can be hard to handle that if you are new to DM’ing for kids.
How about this… I commit to you that my next post will be a solo kid’s adventure. Any suggestions on the theme or setting?
DMing Dad
Hi, I’m wondering if you’ve had a chancre to look at Wild Beyond the Witchlight yet, as a possible kid-friendly adventure? I run games for my 10 yo daughter and her friends, and the teasers and reviews certainly make it look like a great match.
I would recommend the lost things plot line hook. I think it really fits in with kids. Who can’t remember a time in their lives when they left some special toy behind and threw a fit or their parents had to make a big deal of going back to get it. I really think that that particular Adventure hook works really well with children. There’s some darker aspects to the book, but I think that USD parent and dungeon master can really round over the rough edges and make this a great campaign resource.
I recently ran the Relics of St Bogelred with some kids (found at https://byronthebard.com). This was a fun, family-friendly adventure about a group of gnomes trying to get back the stolen treasures of their monastery. It was a little longer adventure (maybe three sessions) but is light and fun in theme. Just another suggestion to consider!
I’m not usually one for modules that contain lots of religious language. Having said that, this looks like a decent Adventure. I was a little put off by the design of the web page, but the adventure PDF looks kind of cool. I haven’t had a chance to read the entire thing through yet, but I like what I see so far.
This URL is down: https://dndadventuresforkids.com/
After checking into it, I found that the owner was not able to meet fundraising goals. The site is currently: https://dndadventuresforkids.wordpress.com/
These are all great. Will be using them soon with my boy.
Nice work, sir!
A genuine pleasure Jason
Thank you for this. I was trying to figure something out for my niece. She is 7 and currently not happy because I won’t let her game with the boys (4 teenage boys between 18 and 13). She is not ready for the game types they like and doesn’t have the attention span for it yet. I might run a second game for her on off weekends with the boys.
Thanks so much for these! I am currently running a D&D club (with mixed success) for the elementary school that I teach at, and I think some of these would be perfect for them. What I mostly struggle with is time to complete plots and the fact that some kids are absent for club meetings. It’s so tricky to just continue a story when half of the party is missing and just act like the never left during the next meeting. I tried to finish a short story per group meeting, but I felt like that rushed the kids too much and limited their creativity. So we just get as far as we can and pick it up later, even if it means stopping in the middle of combat!
Any recommendations for dealing with this kind of group would be greatly appreciated. I’m sure I’m in over my head doing this with a bunch of 5th and 6th graders, but they love it so much! My mind gets so drained creatively between planning for these kids and my other games with friends (I think I may be the forever DM). These give me some good sanity and peace of mind, thank you!
Sarah, be the leaf, not the mountain. At our table, we like to quote/paraphrase the Diablo video game, “An ally has left the game. Your foes grow weaker.” Kids are going to come and go from the table, especially if you are dealing with ADHD kids like I do. Ending the game in the middle of battle… well that’s just called a cliffhanger 🙂 At the beginning of each session, ask one of the kids that was there last session to recap, or you can provide a recap of the previous session to get everyone caught up and ready. After a few minutes of pre-game chatter, I get the players focused with, “When last we left our intrepid heroes…” When they hear this, they all know the game is really starting.
Here’s a tip for when you don’t have enough time to prep a session… Think back to a book, movie, TV show, or cartoon you have watched/read. Grab your deck of monster cards or jot down the minimum info you need from your favorite monster source book. And… Go! It is really that easy. I use a pretty standard formula for how I put my adventures together. Plot hook, DM’s story notes, a little flavor text, PC goals, obstacles, rewards, and some NPCs & monsters. I have a few good sites for maps and graphics to help you out.
If your in a pinch or just not feeling creative, stop by and grab one of my adventures. I am working hard to get the site printer friendly so you can just print and go.
Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!
DMingDad